Word is the Dolphins were trying to trade Reshad Jones to the Steelers initially.
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/d...patrick-trade/
Word is the Dolphins were trying to trade Reshad Jones to the Steelers initially.
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/d...patrick-trade/
Another example of how these Belichick-lite acolytes managed to learn the totally wrong lessons while in NE. Flores insisted that he needed another Patrick Chung to run a Patriots style defense. He was bound and determined to force MF to play that role - despite the player's desire and belief that he would be better suited for another role.
What Flores (and Patricia and Vrabel and all these other Patriots clown shows that get head coaching jobs) fail to understand is that Billy B has not been dominating the league because he played a certain style or he had a certain player in a certain role. It is that he Bruce Lee'd this stuff for a decade or so. He got smart (high football IQ) players that could assimilate and recognize stuff rapidly then he deployed them in ways that best suited their skill sets. He had the style of no one style, but adapted to the realities of his roster and the opponent.
In contrast, Flores goes slavish copier on it and forces MF to be Patrick Chung. MF doesn't want to be Patrick Chung and is likely football smart enough to have a pretty detailed debate with the coaches about it. So the Dolphins see a chance to grab a top 10 pick for a player that is going to be a pain in their arse because he is smarter about football than they are?
This is shaping up to go down as a straight up heist. Dont forget:
Miami will reportedly receive a first-round pick and a fifth-round pick in 2020 as well as a 2021 sixth rounder, per the NFL Network's Ian Rapoport. Pittsburgh will reportedly receive a fourth-round pick in 2020 and a seventh-round pick in 2021 in addition to Fitzpatrick.
Look at that mess from the Steelers side:
So MF is a pretty darn good 2020 1st rounder (big win). Steelers swapped a 2020 5th for the 'Phins 2020 4th (win). Steelers send out a 2021 6th and get back a 7th. Anyone want to guess what the gap between those picks will be? Like 10-15? (Maybe not a big win, but if moving back 15 picks in the last stage of the draft gets you MF...).
OR to put this another way -- Minkah Fitzpatrick came to the Steelers so he could just go super saiyan!
The basic answer to your question is that trading Minkah was NOT in the Dolphins’ plans. You are absolutely correct that he was supposed to be the cornerstone to their defense, and a key building block for their future plans.
Their mistake was using him badly. Minkah is a great kid and a team player, but he’s smarter than they are about how he should be used. He wasn’t happy there and made it clear that he wanted a trade. They tried to talk him out of it, but Minkah knew that he could never maximize his potential in that system. So the Dolphins figured they’d make the best of it and possibly get an even higher pick than they spent on him from the lowly Steelers, who had lost their starting QB for the year.
So it’s not like the Dolphins were total idiots. They never wanted to trade him. But since Minkah really wanted out, they took what looked like the best deal they could possibly get.
And like you said, their loss is our gain.
Mojouw, in his response to you, breaks down how the Dolphins WERE total idiots. Not that they wanted to trade Minkah, but what they did to make him want out.
We can criticize our coaching staff for many things, but in this way Tomlin was very smart. Not just to acquire Minkah, but to LISTEN to him and use him in the way Minkah sees himself being most effective.
I believe the results speak for themselves.
A trade like this doesn’t come along often. It was the perfect storm of opportunity and circumstances. If the Dolphins could have it back maybe they try harder to keep him, and promise that they’ll use him how he wants to be used. But some coaches are too arrogant to ever do that. And Minkah was probably never going to be as happy and productive there as he is with us.
It’s the perfect storm for him too. He got to come to a really talented defense, where he really was the one missing puzzle piece to bring everything together.
So if I give Tomlin and Butler credit for nothing else, I’ll credit them with NOT screwing this up and letting Minkah shine.
^^^ this ^^^
Mojouw does a great job of analyzing the Dolphins’ flawed arrogance that lit the match to enable us to make the best trade in modern Steelers history.
I find this stuff really interesting. On the surface the trade looks like a head scratcher from the Dolphins point of view, but they really weren’t so stupid as to want to trade Minkah. They were stupid in creating a situation where he’d want to leave.
As fans, we usually side with the team over a player in situations where a conflict forces a trade. But this is clearly an example where the player was ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. And in my mind, Minkah getting his way was not only good for Minkah and the Steelers, it was a good lesson to be learned. Sometimes the player IS right, and it wouldn’t hurt to listen rather than ALWAYS arrogantly stick to your guns.
Maybe the Dolphins learned the right lesson from this. Probably not. But maybe.
Thanks for the kind words. Not listening to players and making good players into problems seems to be a trend with these crappy Belichick wannabes.
Flores creates the situation that gets MF shipped out.
Patricia creates the situation that gets Diggs shipped out.
I am sure there are others. I just don't understand how these guys were in the building for so long and just come away with "Be tough! Be in rigid control!" and none of the useful stuff.
Anyway, this is not wholly an original thought on my part: https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2019/9...r-bowl-lessons
Hopefully, MF can become the catalyst for a sustained run of success that a certain out of favor big RB was all those years ago...
Fitzpatrick could have had one more INT (probably a pick-six) in the Rams game. When Heyward batted the pass down, if the pass had not been broken up, Fitzpatrick had a clean break on the ball and would have likely waltzed into the end zone.
Fitzpatrick jokingly gave Heyward crap about it. To which Heyward joked back: “I don’t have eyes in the back of my head.”
Clarification: I do not blame Heyward for batting down the pass; that is his job. There’s no way he could have predicted anything going on behind him. And, as they say: “A bird in the hand...”
My point is/was to compliment Fitzpatrick’s instincts (as in: he is often in position to make a splash play).
We’ve already had the best strong safety in the NFL. I’m fine with having the best free safety now.
If Minkah becomes the next Ed Reed, this might turn out to be the best trade in Steelers history.
I mean, think about this. Minkah is only 23. And he’s a serious student of the game. He’s only going to get BETTER from here.